


Trust Talks

by Serie11



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Banter, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Injuries, Post-Canon, Post-Game(s), Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-24 07:03:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16635173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serie11/pseuds/Serie11
Summary: “Aloy!” Varl cries, jogging over to her. “Are you okay?”“I’m fine,” Aloy says shortly, even though she’s bleeding all over. She should have worn armour with longer sleeves this morning…





	Trust Talks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sunspot (unavoidedcrisis)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unavoidedcrisis/gifts).



Aloy peeks over the top of the red grass to watch her prey. The ravager circles the herd of grazers, alert to any threat that might befall them. The metal of its hide gleams in the sun, and she shades her eyes so it doesn’t blind her. She’s on the hunt for blaze, and those grazers have plenty of it. All she needs to do is deal with their protector and avoid startling the herd too badly. She doesn’t feel like tracking them throughout the hills and valleys around this part of Nora lands.

A subtle movement in the grass beside her is the only thing that gives Varl away. He’s got his spear already in his hands, and his eyes are fixed on the ravager. He’s wearing his usual armour, and looks deadly for it.

“I know the sawtooths are dangerous, but this looks like it could really do some damage,” Varl mutters to her.

“Yeah,” Aloy breathes back. “Watch the canon on its back. It’ll fire at us when we get out into the open, if I don’t do anything about it.”

“How do you normally fight these?” Varl asks, a small frown furrowing his brow as he tracks the movement of the machine. The ravager shakes its head and lets out a grumbling noise.  

Aloy carefully takes her bow off her back, and sorts through her ammo until she finds the arrows she’s looking for. “With these, first of all,” she says, showing Varl the tearblast arrows. “If I land a hit on the canon, these will rip it right off. And then I can use it.”

Varl raises an eyebrow. “Well… I’ve got to see that.”

Aloy nocks her arrow. “I’m ready if you are. Do me a favour and keep it distracted for a few seconds, alright?”

“Got it.”

Aloy breathes, and lifts her bow. The ravager is moving, but she’s taken down targets bigger and faster than it before. She draws back the arrow, feels the burn in her arm and back muscles, and aims.

The arrow lodges in the ravager’s canon, and the machine startles, bouncing a bit back. Aloy nocks another arrow as the whistle of the ammo grows louder, and then with a bang the tearblast arrow goes off, startling the grazers and dislodging the canon. The ravage snarls, and Aloy stands to loose her second arrow, this time aiming at getting rid of some of its armour. She swaps out her arrows for ones that deal more damage, and then starts sprinting to the side to try and avoid the ravager’s first attack.

The machine roars its indignation, and Varl yells to get its attention. Aloy slides through some long grass for long enough that the ravager turns to Varl. She changes direction to make her way directly to the canon, and hoists it up, balancing it on her hip for stability and to take the weight off her arms.

“Take this!” she shouts, and starts shooting the canon. It tears the first few plates of armour off the ravager, and the machine staggers to the side under the onslaught. Aloy keeps it up until the canon is empty, and then throws it the side and draws her bow.

Varl is duelling the ravager, which is looking much the worse for wear, and Aloy starts shooting arrows into its unprotected side. The machine roars and turns on her, and Aloy shoots another few arrows into it as it charges. The ravager doesn’t stop, and Aloy rolls to the side at the last second, heart in her throat and electricity sizzling over her skin.

The ravager leaps past and turns, already ready to go again. Aloy backs up a few paces to give herself more room and keeps shooting carefully planned arrows. The machine snarls, and charges again.

Aloy rolls to the side again, the ravager missing her with its gleaming claws. Aloy shoulders her bow and pulls her sling out from her belt, loading some explosive ammo. Her first bomb misses, but the second hits it’s mark, and the ravager yowls and staggers.

Aloy sprints forward, eyes on the target. The large machine is getting back up, and she tracks its movements with a honed eye.

“Hiya!” Varl yells, and stabs his spear in deep in the ravager’s side. The ravager rolls back from its side and stands, and Varl takes a startled step back.

“That’s not enough to put it down!” Aloy shouts. “Careful!”

“Got it,” Varl says, but he’s much too close to it now. Aloy runs closer just in time to see the ravager start up its annoyingly fast charge attack – and Varl is standing right in the middle of it.

“Varl!” Aloy yells. The ravager goes in for a giant claw attack, and Aloy shoves Varl out of the way by crashing into him, and taking the claw swipe herself. It’s only a glancing blow compared to the amount that Varl would have been injured, so she doesn’t think twice about it, even though her arm immediately lights up in pain. Aloy rolls out the way and snarls as grass and dirt gets in her wound – she’s glad that she put her bow away, because she’s not sure that she could have drawn it at the moment. Instead she grabs her sling and aims another bomb at the ravager, teeth gritted in anger and pain.

Varl wacks away at it with his spear, and finally, the ravager falls, machine parts clinking together as they tumble to the ground. Aloy pants and stares at the glinting metal. She tucks away her sling, her arms feeling leaden where they don’t feel like they’re on fire, and rubs a hand over her face.

“Aloy!” Varl cries, jogging over to her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Aloy says shortly, even though she’s bleeding all over. She should have worn armour with longer sleeves this morning…

“Are you sure?”

Aloy meets Varl’s eyes, and her heart warms at the sincerity she can see in them. “Yeah,” she says quietly. “I’m good.”

“Good,” Varl says. He starts digging through the pouches on his belt and pulls out some bandages. “Here, let me wrap that up. Vala is going to go crazy on me anyway since I let you get hurt, but she’d actually kill me if you came back to camp bleeding.”

Aloy huffs out a laugh. “She’s dealt with me being more injured than this. I’m sure she can cope.”

“Yeah but I can’t,” Varl mutters under his breath. He carefully wraps the fabric around Aloy’s arm, and Aloy watches in fascination as the clean cloth bleeds red.

“Okay, let’s go after those grazers,” Aloy says when Varl ties up the cloth.

“If you’re sure you’re fine,” Varl says.

“I am,” Aloy confirms, lifting the corner of her mouth in a smile. “But thanks for asking.”

“I’m always concerned with your safety,” Varl murmurs. “You and Vala drive each other forward, sometimes in the worst of ways.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re only saying that because we burned down the cabin,” Aloy points out. “Just reminding you that I live there too!”

“And so do I,” Varl sighs. “I still don’t know how you managed to do it…”

Aloy bites her lip so she doesn’t laugh. “Let’s just go and get the blaze. The grazers are probably halfway to Meridian by now.”

“I hope they’re not that far away,” Varl mutters. “I told mother we were coming home for dinner.”

That makes her laugh. “Well, come on then.”

“Aloy,” Varl says as he falls into step with her. “You don’t have to do everything yourself.”

“Hmm?”

“Thank you, for pushing me out of the way. But you didn’t have to.”

“I knew the attack patterns – that was the first time you faced a ravager. You were expecting it to move like a sawtooth. You would have been a lot more hurt than me if you’d gotten clawed.”

“Even so,” Varl says stoically. “I’m prepared to face a mauling. It’s why I wear so much armour. You’re not.”

Aloy looks down at her armour. She’s wearing her Carja Silks, which are breathable but don’t offer the best melee protection. “I can deal with it.”

“I know you can,” Varl says. “But so can I.”

Aloy looks at him out of the corner of her eye. Varl is looking ahead, eyes parsing the thick undergrowth for movement. He’s tall and proud, but strong as well. She _knows_ that he’s strong. Obviously.

“Right,” Aloy says awkwardly. “I know that you can handle yourself. I just didn’t want to see you get chewed up.”

“And I appreciate that,” Varl says. “But you don’t have to shoulder everything yourself. Let yourself let go sometimes.”

Aloy hops over a log, far less graceful than normal. Her shoulder and arm sting with sharp needles of pain, and she kind of wants to go back to Mother’s Heart and lie under a blanket. Maybe Vala would bring her something delicious to eat…

“There they are,” Varl says, and Aloy looks up. The grazers have crossed the river, but that’s no boundary for the two hunters. Even better, it doesn’t look like the herd of machines have picked up another guardian yet.

“Wait,” Aloy breathes. She gets out her fire arrows and rasps one against the rock at her feet to light it. She squeezes her eyes shut and then pulls the bow back, ignoring the screaming of her shoulder.

“Aloy –”

“It’s fine,” she says through gritted teeth.

She lets the arrow loose.

It misses. Aloy swears under her breath.

“What did I just say about not trying to shoulder everything yourself?” Varl asks reproachfully.

Aloy looks at where her arrow has made several of the grazers light up yellow in caution. They’re far enough away that the machines won’t see them, but she doesn’t like alerting the machines at all. To do so in front of Varl makes her feel angry and frustrated with herself.

“I know you didn’t grow up with the rest of us Nora,” Varl says softly. “But know that our strength is shared, and when put together, is greater than what we had apart. Working as a team is the best way to survive out in the wilderness.”

“I’m not used to working as part of a team,” Aloy says quietly, not looking at Varl.

“I know,” Varl says. “But Vala and I are working on that.”

Aloy smiles softly. “Yeah, I know.”

“I could have let you come out here alone today,” Varl says. “But I didn’t. So let’s demonstrate some teamwork, shall we?”

Aloy and Varl bend their heads together and it’s only a minute before they have a plan. Aloy shoulders her bow gingerly, pulls her sling back out of where she had stashed it, and creeps forward, closer to the river. Varl quietly glides in the opposite direction, sliding through the red grass easily.

Aloy carefully tucks her explosive ammo into the part of the sling where it fits, and waits. After a few minutes, she picks out some unnatural looking movement in the grass on the other side of the river, but waits until she sees Varl raise a hand for a second before readying herself.

She pulls back her sling, the weapon far easier on her arm than her bow had been. She aims, and when she fires the bomb heads in a clean arc on the side of the herd closest to the river.

The grazers all startle, and start running, away from the explosion. Aloy grins to herself as she sees several start to trip over the traps that Varl has laid, and she stands from her hiding place in the red grass and starts to look for a crossing point in the river.

On the other side, Varl is already picking through the grazer parts and putting all the blaze to one side.

“Good job,” Varl says, grinning at her. Aloy beams back.

“Good teamwork,” Aloy says, and Varl nods.

“Good teamwork,” he agrees. “Now let’s get this back to Mother’s Heart.”

**Author's Note:**

> hey giftee!! I liked two of your prompts for this challenge so... I wrote two! Happy holidays!


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